By their very nature, retro games are a thing of the past. As video games become more technologically advanced, some players just want to go back to a time when games𓄧 were simpler, but not necessari🌺ly by playing those old games.

Related
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Best RPGs With Pixel Graphics

Whether a product of its time or an artistic choice, nothing🥂 beats a good pixel art RPG.

2

Luckily, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of retro-inspired games that are being made currently, so you can get your retro fix even🌞 with modern games. Below, we'll takඣe a look at some of the best games that have come out in recent years, but feel like they could have easily come out decades ago.

10 ♚ Animal Well 🙈

Animal Well
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Animal Well
Released
May 9, 2024

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
5.0/5

ESRB
E For Everyone Due To Mild🥂 Fantasy Violence🦩
Developer(s)
Shared ﷺMemory ꧂
Publisher(s)
Bigmode
Engine
🅰 Proprietary Engine 🎐
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
7 Hours
PS Plus Availability
Extra ⛄& Premium 🌞

Animal Well is a puzzle platforming metroidvania that perfectly captures the feeling of exploration and discovery that popu🐟larized the genre in the first place. The game has you exploring a deep and i▨nterconnected labyrinth, solving puzzles, and unlocking new items in any order you choose to progress further.

There's no combat in Animal Well, b🔯ut there are hundreds of details to be found by exploring its world. You're encouraged to play the game in the same way that you would in pre-Internet days, without looking ꦉup the solutions to puzzles online, and instead trying to solve the game on your own. This level of discovery is becoming scarce in modern games, but Animal Well delivers on this essential retro feeling.

9 Go🔥🌜odboy Galaxy

Goodboy Galaxy is an action platformer where you play as a dog in space. As Maxwell the spacefaring dog, you'll explore strange new worlds to try to save your collapsing home planet, using ꩲa variety of tools and upgrades along the way.

Goodboy Galaxy is actually a modern Game Boy Advance game. While you can buy and play it on Steam, you can also get a ROM of the game that runs on original GBA hardware, or on one of the many retro handheld emulators that have become more popular in recent years, like the Analog Pocket or any of Anbernic's devices. It doesn't get more modern retro than playing a game released in 2024 on a Game Boy Advan🐷ce!

8 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

mixcollage-13-dec-2024-12-13-pm-4841.jpg
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Beat 'Em Up
Systems
Released
June 16, 2022

WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
4.5/5

ESRB
E༒10🌳+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence
Developer(s)
🙈 ও Tribute Games Inc.
Publisher(s)
Dotemu
Engine
FNA
Multiplayer
🐭 Local Co-Op, Online Co-Op
Number of Players
1-6
Split Screen Orientation
൩ N/A (Shared Screen)
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
Local Co-Op Support
1-4ꦓ Players
How Long To Beat
3 Hours
X|S Optimized
Yes
File Size Xbox Series
✤ 1 GB (November 2023) ꦕ
PS Plus Availability
ꩵ Extra & Premium 𓄧
Metascore
85

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge is a side-scrolling beat 'em up game that draws inspiration from classics like Turtles i🧸n Time. The character and environment design is also lifted straight f🐽rom the original 1987 TV show, which just further feeds into the nostalgia machine.

Related
9 Games That Feel Like A Saturd♓ay Mor♎ning Cartoon

Take a trip back to you🍃r childhood with these games that belong on an old CRT TV!

Including the four main turtles, you can also play as April O'Neil, Splinter, and Casey Jones, and you can play with up to six players at a time. That said, the game is still a lot of fun solo, especially if you're a fan of TMNT or classic beat 'em🌠 ups.

7 Shovel Knight ꦰ 𓆏

mixcollage-14-dec-2024-06-42-am-3483.jpg
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Shovel Knight
Platformer
Systems
Released
June 26, 2014

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL

ESRB
🅠 E For Everyone due to Mild Fantasy Violence 🗹
Developer(s)
Yacht 🧔Club Games 𝓡
Publisher(s)
Yacht Club Games ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤꧙⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ
Engine
𒁏GameMaker Studio
Multiplayer
🌌 ♏ Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer
Franchise
💙 ♉ Shovel Knight
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
7 Hours

While it may be pushing the definition of modern, having been released over ten years ago, Shovel Knight was one of the first games to attempt a retro-feeling game but wi🐲th modern design choices. Using your trusty shovel, you play as a knight on a journey to🌼 save your adventuring partner.

The game t𓆉akes the most inspiration from Mega Man; it's a 2D side-scrolling platformer where you fight through levels, defeat bosses, and upgrade your equipment. The twist is that you can use your shovel to dig for treasure, which you ca꧅n use to purchase new items to upgrade the knight.

6 Cro🍎w Coun🌸try

mixcollage-14-dec-2024-01-04-am-4591.jpg
Crow Country
Survival Horror
Systems
Released
May 9, 2024

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
m
Developer(s)
SFB Games
Publisher(s)
SFB Games
Engine
Unity
OpenCritic Rating
Strong

Crow Country is a PS1-inspired survival horror game where you must explore an abandoned theme park to find out what happened to its owner. The game's aesthetic manages to perfectly encapsulate൲ the PS1-era of survival horror games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Parasite Eve.

However, Crow Coܫuntry isn't meant to be a straight rip-off of these classic games. It sets itself apart with a movable camera, great writing, and tons oඣf details and clues packed into almost every area.

5 Lunacid

mixcollage-18-nov-2024-11-41-pm-5762.jpg
Lunacid
Systems
Released
March 15, 2022

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
nr
Developer(s)
Kira Llc
Publisher(s)
Kira Llc
Engine
Unity
Platform(s)
PC
OpenCritic Rating
Strong
How Long To Beat
11 Hours

Lunacid is a dark fantasy first-person RPG reminiscent of FromSoftware's King's Field games. Set in a land de🔯void of light known as the Great Well, you will e🌼xplore its crooked hallways, claustrophobic caves, and moonlit dungeons.

Related
These 8 Games 𓂃Are So Perfect, They Will Never Need A Remake

I love them as-is. Most of you probably do, too.

2

With several optional graphical filters, you can increase the immersion factor even further, which is where Lunacid truly excels. The game just feels like ꦓit was pulled straight from the 90s alongside King's Field and Shadow Tower, and fans of those types of 🐲games will have a lot to appreciate here.

4 🌠 Caves Of Qud

mixcollage-13-feb-2025-01-34-am-335.jpg
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Caves Of Qud
Released
July 15, 2015

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

Developer(s)
Freehold Games 💖
Publisher(s)
♎ 𒈔 Freehold Games
Engine
Unity
Platform(s)
PC

Caves of Qud is a roguelike RPG that offers one of the most comprehensive role-playing experiences in a single game. Set in a procedurally generated sci-fi fantasy world, each new run of Caves of Qud is entirely unique. You start by creating your character from dozens of different options, called Mutations, to give yourself differe♚nt features like wings, two heads, or teleportation powers.

The game is absolutely packed with things to do, and the lore and worldbuilding are so deep you won't see the end of it for hundre﷽ds of hours. Caves of Qud is best played without following guides or walkthroughs, as the best part is wandering around this broken world and♋ creating your own adventure.

3 𒐪 Skald: Against The Black P🍰riory

Skald: Against the Black Priory
RPG
Indie
Adventure
Strategy
Systems
Released
May 30, 2024

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

Publisher(s)
Raw Fury
Engine
unity
Platform(s)
PC

Skald: Against the Black Priory is a retro-inspired part♉y-based RPG set in a grim-dark world beset by cosmic horrors. Gameplay-wise, Skald plays most similarly to classic CRPGs like Ultima, with a hint of Dungeons & Dragons in its roleplaying elements. Add in a dash of Robert E. Howard's Conan series and Joe Abercrombie's First Law series for the story, and you've got Skald.

The game is true to its roots i𒐪n a way that a lot of modern games aren't; it's difficult and obtuse at times, and rewards careful and slow progression rather than rushing in and figuring things out as you go. It's story and text-heavy, but each interaction is rewarding and teaches you more ab🦄out the world.

2 Ultrakill

mixcollage-14-dec-2024-10-10-am-1485.jpg
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Ultrakill
Systems
Released
September 3, 2020

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

ESRB
t
Developer(s)
🌱 Arsi "Hakita" Patala
Publisher(s)
𓄧 New Blood Interactive
Engine
Unity
Steam Deck Compatibility
Verified
Early Access Release
ꦬ September 3, 2020
Platform(s)
PC
How Long To Beat
5 Hours
Steam User Rating
🐽 98%💃 (October 25, 2023)

Even over 20 years later, Doom is inspiring a massive genre of games, affectionately re๊ferred to as boomer shooters. Ultrakill is one such boomer shooter, complete with fast-paced first-person action, a pixelated art style, tons of weapons, andౠ lots of blood.

In fact, blood is the fuel that keeps your machine of a body moving, so you'll need to keep killing t𝓰o stay in the fight. Ultrakill also has a style meter similar to Devil May Cry, so you're incentivized to use each of your abilities to rack up combos.

1 UFO 50

mixcollage-30-nov-2024-07-09-am-323.jpg
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: UFO 50
Action
Adventure
Platformer
Puzzle
Strategy
Arcade
Sports
Racing
Shooter
RPG
Idle Games
Real-Time Strategy
Systems
Released
September 18, 2024

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL

Developer(s)
꧑ Mossmouth, Eirik Suhrke, Derek Yu, Jon Perry, Tyriq Plummer, Paul Hubans, Ojiro Fumoto
Publisher(s)
Mossmouth
Engine
🔯 GameMaker St🎉udio 2
Multiplayer
Local Co-Op, Local Multiplayer ⭕
Number of Players
1+
Steam Deck Compatibility
Playable
PC Release Date
Septemb☂er 18, 2024
Platform(s)
PC
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty
How Long To Beat
140 hours

UFO 50 is perhaps the best example of a modern retro game. The game itself is actually 50 different games that are each inspired by NES-era classics in some way. These games aren't simple or knock-offs either, they are full-fledged experiences that you would have no problem buying indiv🎃idually.

For example, Grimstone is an entire, full-length JRPG inspired by classics like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, while Vainger is a metroidvania complete with upgrades and boss fights. Then you have games like Bu💜g Hunter, which plays just like Into the Breach, or Velgress, which is essentially a reverse Downwell.

The creativity on display in each and every one of UFO 50's games is something that is missing from a lot of modern games. If you're craving the joy and wonder that you experienced playing o🤡lder games in the 90s, U💫FO 50 is the one that will bring that magic back.

Next
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: 9 Hardest Games in UFO 50

What'൲s a true retro game without a true sense of difficulty?